WASHINGTON \u2014 Florida intends to shut down the controversial \u200bfederal migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing a federal official and three people \u200cfamiliar with the facility’s operations.<\/p>\n
According to the report, vendors were told by officials on Tuesday \u2060afternoon that the facility was \u200bclosing and that detainees would be \u2060moved by the start of June. The facility, which cost about $250 million to \u200cbuild, would be \u200cbroken down over the following weeks, according to the sources cited in \u2060the report.<\/p>\n
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office \u2060did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for DHS, asked about the New York Times report, said the agency continues to evaluate detention needs and requirements to ensure they meet the latest operational requirements.<\/p>\n
“Any reports that DHS is pressuring the state to \u200ccease operations at Alligator Alcatraz are false,” \u200bthe spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Immigration and Customs Enforcement had held an average of about 1,400 detainees at the facility from Oct. 1, 2025, through early April of this year, according to statistics from the agency. Advocates criticized the conditions in the facility, saying bright lights remained on 24 hours a day, detainees were denied medicine, and the remote \u200blocation made it challenging to obtain legal counsel.<\/p>\n
The facility was opened under former \u200cHomeland Security Secretary \u200cKristi Noem’s \u2060tenure and is located 37 miles west of Miami in a vast subtropical wetland that is home to alligators, crocodiles and pythons \u2014 imagery that the White House leveraged to show its determination to remove migrants.<\/p>\n
President \u200cDonald Trump, who has a \u200bhome in Florida, has for a \u200cdecade made aggressive immigration \u2060and border policies \u200bcentral to his political agenda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Florida intends to shut down the controversial \u200bfederal migrant detention center known as “Alligator Alcatraz,” The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8141,8140,2419,4883,3415,2710,610,9,11,10,12,87,7178,8142,319,2556,2023,1844,133],"class_list":["post-229409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-cars","tag-classifieds","tag-homes","tag-international","tag-jobs","tag-law","tag-local","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-radio","tag-salt-lake","tag-sports","tag-television","tag-traffic","tag-utah","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}